Deadlands: Hell on Earth

Long Hard Road

Lucid Dreaming

Dying Town USA, Rise up, scratch the surface

Throne Room

Ben uses his mental powers to poke into Marilyn’s mind. It is just enough to rouse her from her daze. “Marilyn, you have to believe it’s me.”

The doppelganger tries to sway Marilyn’s favor. “He is not me, his words untrue, he only wants to hurt you.”

Marilyn is confused and frightened. She turns her gaze to the real Ben and focuses on him.

Ben feels a sensation he has not had in a long time. The feeling instantly send him back- the last memory he had of this was when a skinny was trying to psychically rip him apart. The very fiber of his being is being pulled in all directions.

“Please! Marilyn! You have to break out of this. It’s not just hurting me,it’s going to hurt Hammy and Nigel, Soria too!”

“Hammy? Nigel?…” It’s clear she is disoriented, but something about this plea gets through to her. She relents her attack.

Ben climbs the throne and hugs Marilyn- “I’m sorry that we let them take you. I’m sorry we failed you. Never again! I promise, we’ll always protect you!”

Void Plateau

The Obsidian Goliath grabs a chunk of the rock and hurls it at Hammy, striking him in the guts.

The Pumpkin King climbs up from the depths using Nigel’s body as a hold point. “You can’t kill me. I am rot, I am decay. Dead thing, I shall take your head and use your body as my mantle.” It swipes at Nigel’s chest with it’s bloody pulsing vines.

The strike hits Nigel, crippling his body from the neck down. Hammond sees his body drop and sees that the Pumpking King is wrapping it’s tentacles around his neck. It is trying to pop his head clean off and assume control of his body.

“NO!, Nigel!” Hammond growls as he charges across the plateau. He leaps forth and slashes down on the eldritch flame with all his might. The slash hits with such a power that the flame is extinguished. A cloud of magical energy flutters out from the body and absorbs into Hammond’s fists.

He feels a huge surge of energy, a great power coursing through his veins. Instinctually he know he can use this power for something. He could choose to attack the beast, or for other purposes. He diverts the enegery at Nigel’s body. This power, a power of death, manages to actually heal Nigel’s body. “I’m not letting you go like that.”

Nigel’s form rapidly heals and he manages to stand back up. They both turn to face the Obsidian Goliath. Nigel still cowers away, but he manages to send a plasma blast at the demon.

Throne Room

The doppelganger pulls his sub-machine gun out and fires.

“I won’t let you hurt her!” – Ben uses his body to ensure Marilyn is not struck by any stray bullets. He takes several bullets to hist chest.

Ben it hurt, but shakes it off. He also starts to realize who this doppelganger may be. As far as he can tell, they haven’t seen Twitch yet. And the Syker powers / sub-machine gun mixture would fit.

Ben pierces through the haze of the confusion. “I need you to help, you have to be able to break out of this!”

The imposter shouts – “No No, he’s going to take you away. Don’t you realize ever since you’ve met him, him and his people- you’ve seen nothing but death and pain. They took away everything from you, your family, your life..”

Marilyn looks to the real Ben, seeing an honesty in him. She looks back at the false Ben- “No, No!” Suddenly there is a burst of white energy exploding out from Marilyn. The Throne explodes, sending the doppleganger flying off as the whole scene floods with white, blinding light.

Void Plateau

“I know there’s someone still in there. I know the person deep within you is still there, the good person that I know. I know you would never hurt us, you just have to fight that thing.”

There is no response from the hulking beast. It viciously attacks. Hammond gets knocked around a few times.

It then reaches over and grabs Nigel by the legs. It easily lifts him up and wields him, not unlike a man-sized baseball bat.

Hammond jumps up to strike the Goliath across the head, trying to knock it out. The hit lands, and shakes up the beast. “I know you’re still in there. you’ve got to stop this thing from attacking us.”

The Goliath smacks Hurls Nigel at Hammond, striking in the arm. The force knocks him back. They continue the dance of battle. Hammond sees that the damage he has done to the monster is completely healed.

They continue to battle. The Goliath tries to toss Nigel over the edge of the plateau, but Hammond manages to “will” a small extension of the ground out. It is small but just enough for Nigel to grab.

desert wasteland town.

Ben awakens, covered in dust from the ground. He looks around to find a distantly familiar place. Before him is “Dead Town” the small settlement near Abeline, Texas. This is the town where they found Marilyn. It takes him a moment to get his bearings, but he is able to figure out which direction Marilyn’s house is.

Off in the distance he hears some type of rumble, like a truck. A cloud of dust kicks off the tires of a speeding tractor trailer. The windows of the vehicle have been covered so that little to no light can enter, except for the driver’s area. Behind the truck are several other smaller delivery trucks. The dark caravan pushes toward the small down at high speed.

Ben quickly scrambles to find the house that they found Marilyn. He finds it and runs up to the door. He reaches to open it and passes right through the door. Ben stumbles forward into the living room.

Inside he sees a middle-aged man peering out the blinds. “What’s wrong?” a woman’s voice calls from the other room.

“Trouble.” states the man in a harsh, plain tone. He turns and looks back at the woman entering the room. Ben sees her now. It is Sylvia Chambers. “Get her down in the safe-hatch, now!”

“Smell this.” Mr. Chambers retorts, shooting his Sharps Big 50 straight through the door. The shot blows a large hole in Vlados’s face.

Ben follows Sylvia into the back of the house. She finds Marilyn and takes her to the safe-hatch. “Get down in here. Stay safe, Stay silent. No matter what you hear, don’t come out.”

The vampires begin swarming the house. Sylvia and Mr. Chambers start fighting them off. Sylvia splits a broomstick over one of them. she uses the one half to fight it back down the hall.

Ben sees another vampire lurk into the bedroom. It starts sniffing around and clawing under the bed,near the entrance to the safe-hatch. Ben reaches down and tries to grab the other half of the broom stick. At first it slips through his fingers, but then he is able to grab a hold. He shoves the stick into the side of the vampire. It snarls and looks around, but looks right through Ben. It then looks off into the hall and runs after it’s unseen attacker.

Ben floats down through the floor to find Marilyn. He attempts to cover her eyes and ears so she does not see/hear the horror of what is occurring in her town. He hears scream and shouts. He thinks back to what he remembered of the town. There are sounds of gunfire and bestial roars.

He recalls the face of Mr. Chambers and it suddenly clicks. He has seen that face before. It was the Zombie that they found staked to a wall when they first arrived in the town.

“It’s ok. This is just a memory” she tells him. She blinks, and almost instinctually Ben blinks with her.

Void Plateau

“You seem to think you can control this place. HA! This is MY world” The Incubus shouts. The ground shakes as hands reach out from the surface. They grab at both of the men.

Hammond keeps pleading with the Obsidian Goliath, trying desperately to appeal to Soria hidden deep within. “Hammond, he’s built a prison. I can’t escape. I can’t get out” Soria’s voice emerges from the beast.

The Desert

As Ben opens his eyes, he finds himself standing out in the desert. Nearby there is a busted up econobox. A make-shift tent built up near a small campfire. This is s vision of a safe place.

Marilyn speaks – “I remember nights like this. We were always moving. Always going forward. I remember the stars at night, there’s so many of them. Sometimes I thought, they can’t be gods. The ones that created THIS world. They can’t be gods because all they’ve done is blasted one world. The stars are infinite and they can barely scratch one world. Then i get reminded what they can do. What things like them can do.”

Ben – " What we can do is try to survive. We do our best, and we fight them."

Marilyn – “But I’m not sure. I’m not sure if I can or I can’t. Look at what’s happened. I’m not sure if I can live through this.”

“You have so far. But you also have us, to help. We need you just as much as you need us.”

Marilyn – “but They need you now. You’ll have to help them.”

“Where are they now?” -Ben

“They are here, and not. They are in the hunting grounds, a part of it at least. It’s the afterlife, and the spirit realm. There are parts of it like heaven, and parts of it like hell. You can guess what part HE came from. Ancient, twisted, much like the Four. He was a product of a time of chaos, before order came to this world. Eons passed, it grew in the shadow of things greater than it. Gods came and went. Now it wants it’s turn. Now in the shadow of the Four, it want to rise once more.”

“How do you know all this?” – Ben

“I’m sorry Ben, you are too late” – Marilyn

“that’s not true, if we were too late, we’d be dead” -B

“How can you be hear if you are not dead?” – M

“The pumpkin king has brought us to places like this before. You must still be under it’s control.” He grabs Marilyn in a hug. “We’re gonna save them, We’re gonna stop this. Take us to where they are. Take us to Hammond and Nigel”

Marilyn blinks. They are whisked away.

Void Plateau

Ben and Marilyn arrive on the scene. They

“What is this?” The Incubus shouts in frustration.

“It’s the end! For you!” Ben quips.

He calls out to Soria to have her change.

Hammond and Nigel realize that Ben has arrived, and both see that Marilyn is there. They are relieved to at least see she is still present, even if this is not the safest place.

Large Mansion near Tuscon

The group arrives within the foyer of the large mansion that Vlados had been holding up in. “This is a proper lace to end it.”

Meanwhile, in the ritual chamber

Jonathan Douglas and Michael step into the dark ritual chamber. Marilyn is tied to an altar, naked. Sitting across the room stating ahead is a naked , hairless young man. Twitch sits in a daze, his skin carved with demonic runes and symbols.

Suddenly he stands, in a complete zombie-like stare. He begins to walk to the altar. His eyes glow with the dark energy of the Incubus

Douglas and Michael react quickly, pulling there weapons and striking the young man down. The energy of the Incubus fades form his eyes as they return to normal. Confused, Twitch looks up at them- “What?… Just…” his voice trails off as he slumps lifeless to the floor.

“She’s still affected. If it wins.. if it can break them…” – Michael

“I wonder if we can do something about that.” -JD

“I think we can. I need you to do something for me. Something I couldn’t do. I need you to stay here. I need you to make sure she is ok. If someone tries to do anything, you stop them. You kill them. I don’t care if it’s one of them, or if it’s me. Now I have to face the demon that I ran away from the last time.” -Michael

He begins a chanting ritual. His brow sweats. It is not working.

Mansion Foyer

“On my count, I need you to break free Soria!. Opet Lumen Disper Gimini” Ben uses the blast of light. Nigel and Hammond follow suit, all firing the light powers at the Incubus.

“No, this is my world. the girl will be mine” The Incubus’s dark tendrils pierce the ball.